Statistical description of segregation in a powder mixture

In this paper we apply the statistical mechanics of powders to describe a segregated state in a mixture of grains of different sizes. Variation of the density of a packing with depth arising due to changes of particle configurations is studied. The statistical mechanics of powders is generalized in such a way as to consider not only binary mixtures (as its first formulation by A. Mehta and S.F. Edwards), but also polydisperse mixtures of particles.